The computer that runs the software and stepper controls will not power on, There is power to the stepper controller, but there is no power to the mother board. THere is a giant dent on the top of the case, so I do not know if the power supply or switch were physically damaged. I am not knowledgeable about PC diagnostics and repair, so I need someone who is to assist. @jphelps@ozindfw can we connect to work this out? Thanks. @Will1 you were not doing anything wrong, there is a hardware failure.
I did not post this in ISSUES or OUTAGES on purpose because Jay and I are the target audience. The machine is diabled and tagged out pending the repair.
No you can see the dent on top . The switch for the controller board is on the side of the case and it powers on the controller board and you can hear it engage the steppers . The button on top of the case that turns on the computer does nothing.
Looks like the power supply is dead. There is 5V standby power, and the front panel power switch operates the control line to the power supply as expected.
There is a complicating factor in repair though. It seems that all of the connectors are thoroughly glued to the motherboard. I think a power supply change may necessitate a motherboard change and practically a complete rebuild.
I am working with Sherline support for a solution. A replacement computer is $800 without the controller board and $1500 with. The Mach 3 controller that works with a windows PC via USB is also $1500. I want to keep this as close to Sherline stock as possible so that we do not end up with a similar issue as with the un-usable Sherline CNC lathe. The person I spoke to first said the sealer/glue on the board is silicone. THe CNC guy was gone for the day.
Yes it is factory stock from sherline . (They make great machine tools and assemble computers from 20 year old parts in the back room. They put the silicone on to waterproof and coolant proof the electric bits ). I am
Talking to the tech tomorrow .
And make them nearly impossible to repair. This one also has an optical drive that is completely disconnected. If we don’t need it we should pull it and plug the hole to make room to dress the forest of cable inside. It’s a mess.
Sorry! Neither Max nor I noticed the case dent. We did try to engage the power button. Like you said, the switchs on the case side and the power cord worked.
Please let me know what assistance is needed.
Do we need to view video tapes to catch the perp?
When I went to use it, the vice and table were pretty dirty with lots of chips.
@keoliver I was able to beat the silicone issue. The power supply is good (tested this morning). After some additional testing with @ozindfw we’ve determined the most likely issue is the MB is bad. The dent in the back of it was quite possibly sufficient to kill the board.
Ideas: If we remove the separate power supply and parallel port controller board and install in a separate box I have a PC we can use. It may work fine with the old Ubuntu 12 that Sherline uses or we will have to use a newer version and sort out why I was seeing some lower performance numbers from their test utility.
Update for those interested . We have removed the control board for the cnc from the old computer case . We have also moved the hard drive from the dead computer to a new computer and it works . I am building a new case for the control board and power supply and should have it complete in a couple of day . After some setup and configuration testing the sherline cnc mill should be functional by the weekend. There will be a slight change to the startup and login procedures and I will provide an update to those who were trained .
